As host Kim Rusk would say, “Couples Survival is marriage therapy in hostile terrain. This is an apt description, since in each episode, two lovers are parachuted into nature and must survive for 36 hours without (too much) tearing their hair out. We can talk about a cross between If we loved each other and Survivor, but without Louise Sigouin and Patrice Bélanger. The series begins this week with Jade and Samuel, two outdoor enthusiasts, newlyweds and new parents to a 10-month-old boy (whom they have thankfully left at home). The result is entertaining. But would we have preferred 30-minute episodes instead of full hours? Probably.
We were skeptical, but after watching the first episode, broadcast last Thursday, we are reassured. This novelty respects the three-step formula of renovation shows that we consume in an almost morbid way: a presentation, work, an unveiling. Every week, Réal Béland meets “random” people (at least that’s what we’re led to believe here) and takes charge of their renovation project, along with a contractor (Martin Labonté) and a designer (Daphne Morin). We like the casual animation style of the comedian, who seems to know about crafts. A Trinôme et filles production (Papa Hammer, Rénos à p’tits prix).
American soap operas dubbed into French remain the prerogative of certain specialized channels. Bones, Law & Order, The Scott Brothers, La Brea: The Chasm, Walker… The best take of the fall belongs to MAX, who takes us back to the early 2000s by presenting Alias, this action series in which Jennifer Garner plays a spy named Sydney Bristow. This J. J. Abrams (Felicity, Lost) creation spanned five seasons. We have excellent memories of the first two, as exciting as possible and full of twists and turns, an expression that could also be used to describe each new look of the heroine. As for the last three seasons, despite some good times, we could have done without them.
Still directed by Olivier Languedoc (Le fin fond de l’histoire, La dernier maison), this documentary series is back on the air, but with a host this time, and Mathieu Baron is at the helm. In each episode, the actor meets a person who has extricated himself from an extremely perilous situation. The second season opens with the story of Mateo Corrales, a young man from Candiac who is electrocuted while descending from the roof of an abandoned factory, before being rushed to hospital and being plunged into an artificial coma. The reconstructions are sober and effective. Penelope McQuade, Dany “Babu” Bernier and Robert Marien, all of whom were “close to death”, will appear on screen later in the fall.
